The Dresden Files > DF Spoilers

Love Potion, Huge Violation of 3rd Law?

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peregrine:
Doesn't the law against transformation also specifically mention that you can't transform someone against their will?  So obviously consent makes a difference in more situations than just mental magic.

Paviel:
Yes, and the Hexenwolf belts are an exception to the "transform against their will" rule specifically because a person consents to the transformation by willingly putting on the belt.

Mr. Death:
I'm gonna put the game books' write-up of the third law here, because it's saying a lot of the same things I am:

(click to show/hide)The Third Law
Never Invade the
Thoughts of Another.
The Third Law, though it might seem to be
about a relatively harmless act, recognizes a
single, simple principle: a violation of the mind
is as much a crime as violation of the body—by
some lights, it’s worse.
To read someone else’s thoughts, you have to
cross one of the most fundamental borders in
all of creation: the line that divides one person
from another. When you break into someone
else’s mind to listen to his thoughts, you’re
disrupting the natural order of things. Think of
the mind as a locked house and think of yourself
as someone lacking a key. Sure, you might need
to get in there for the very best of reasons, but
once you’ve done it there’s a picked lock, broken
window, or busted hinge somewhere. In short,
the act is always a violent intrusion, no matter
how “gentle” you are with it.
Even beyond breaking the sanctity of another’s
thoughts, there are problems with what
you find when you invade someone’s mind.
Knowledge is power, after all, and when you
get inside someone’s head, you take a position
of profound power over him. And in this
case, we’re definitely talking the kind of power
that corrupts. Not to mention, it’s sort of the
cognitive equivalent of seeing how sausage gets
made—best left as something you don’t see and
don’t think about too much.
Furthermore, there are plenty of secrets in
the world that are meant to be kept. If there’s an
institutional reason behind the White Council’s
establishment of the Third Law, it’s all about the
secrets. Plenty of wizards keep secrets they don’t
want others hearing about, and discovered secrets
have a way of getting out. Discover enough
secrets, and you end up destroying a lot of what
keeps the world a civilized place—and civilization
is one of those little innovations that helps
keep most of mankind safe from the darkness
lurking around the edges.

Finally, reading someone’s thoughts means
you have to open your mind up to “receive” the
signal. The problem here is that you can’t always
be sure what else you’ll pick up when you do
that. Who knows what sort of nastiness could be
“broadcasting,” hoping you’ll pick them up? And
what will happen to you when you do? (In game
terms, reading someone’s thoughts always makes
you a viable target for mental attacks from both
your victim and whatever supernatural nastiness
might be in the area.)
Pertinent bits bolded.

Mr. Death:
And Harry's reaction when he learns Molly looked into him is instructive:


--- Quote ---I shivered. Ugh. Molly playing in my head. That wasn’t
necessarily the prettiest thing to think about. Molly had a gift for
neuromancy, mind magic, but she’d used it to do some fairly nasty
things to people in the past—for perfectly good reasons, true, but
all the same it had been honest-to-evilness black magic. It was the
kind of thing that people got addicted to, and it wasn’t the kind of
candy store that I would ever want that kid to play in.
Especially considering that the inventory was me.
“Hell’s bells, Michael,” I murmured. “You shouldn’t have done
that to her.”
--- End quote ---

Paviel:
The operative words seem to be "invasion" and "violation." You don't consent to an invasion or a violation.

Or to put it another way, if you do consent, it isn't an invasion or a violation.

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